Over 30 associations co-sign a letter to the European Commissioner for Trade expressing concern over the potential withdrawal of Cambodia’s preferential trade status under the Everything-but-arms (EBA) scheme.

Prak Sokhonn, the Cambodian Foreign Minister, will meet European Union’s Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom in Brussels next month to push forward the Kingdom’s viewpoint on the potential cancellation of the Everything-but-arms (EBA) scheme.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has said that the withdrawal of the Everything-but-arms treaty by the European Union will not affect Cambodia as it would have eventually disappeared regardless of the EU’s current review.

If nothing else happens, a dismal outlook looms ahead as Cambodia’s trade preferences under the Everything But Arms (EBA) agreement granted in 2011 by the European Union (EU) risk termination in 18 months.

It is unfair for Cambodia – whose government did not come to power through a military coup and its state apparatus is non-communist – to suffer unnecessary economic sanctions from the EU in the form of withdrawal of its trade preferences under the Everything but Arms scheme, writes Chan Khunthiny.